trailer break: ‘Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief’

Or maybe not. “I definitely have strong feelings for you. I just haven’t decided if they’re positive or negative yet.” Who says that? What teenager says anything like that?

Also: the title of this film may be the biggest, most cumbersome movie title since The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. Or maybe Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. Or Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.

On a positive note, I do believe I’ve been saying for years that Sean Bean is a god, and I’m delighted to be vindicated.

Also, only getting audio from left channel playing the preview from your site. I tried all three trailers off IMDB and they sound fine.

Bluejay

“I definitely have strong feelings for you. I just haven’t decided if they’re positive or negative yet.” Who says that? What teenager says anything like that?

No one says that in the book, as far as I can recall. The main characters in the book are 12 years old; they seem to be older in the movie (maybe Chris Columbus didn’t want to repeat his Harry Potter experience). Which maybe means injecting some (unnecessary, IMO) romance into the story.

Also: the title of this film may be the biggest, most cumbersome movie title since The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.

Oh, it’s no more cumbersome than The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, or The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. :-)

I hope the movie is good. Greek myths are awesome, and reminding a modern audience of their awesomeness is a good thing.

Nathan F

I know it’s a more famous book, but I don’t think anything will match The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Nathan F

But then I remembered Tyler Perry’s upcoming For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Bluejay

Another reason for me to root for the movie: Logan Lerman. I’ve liked him ever since I saw him in 3:10 to Yuma and one of my daughter’s favorites, Hoot. I think he can really shine in a good film.

I see the trailer now gives the actual date rather than just “President’s Day.” Good move.

LaSargenta

@Nathan F — That was first a play by Ntozake Shange. Just need to point that out. Not everything begins only when it is “picked up” by a maker of movies. And somethings just need a long title. Viz: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch or Through the Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There.

:-)

Der Bruno Stroszek

Just because it isn’t an original screenplay doesn’t mean that’s not a terrible, terrible title, though. I had to go to IMDb to check it was real.

Brian

Two things that I’d bet good money on:

1. “Clash of the Titans meets Harry Potter” is probably exactly how this movie was pitched — maybe even how the book was conceived.

2. Sean Bean will be sixty times more interesting than the most colossal effects set piece in this movie, and will still not be enough to make it interesting.

Nathan F

@LaSargenta

Yes, I’m aware it’s a play just like Percy Jackson and Narnia were books. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a very unwieldy title.

Bluejay

I actually like cumbersome, Victorian-style titles. Like On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

And cumbersome chapter titles are even better: “An Apology for the Insensibility of Mr. Jones, to all the Charms of the lovely Sophia; in which possibly we may, in a considerable Degree, lower his Character in the Estimation of those Men of Wit and Gallantry, who approve the Heroes in most of our modern Comedies” (Tom Jones, Book IV, Ch. 6).

Bluejay

“Clash of the Titans meets Harry Potter” is probably exactly how this movie was pitched — maybe even how the book was conceived.

I don’t know how the movie was pitched, but that’s not quite how the book got started, at least according to the author.

The book’s not bad. It’s certainly marketed to appeal to Harry Potter fans, and there are some plot similarities, but ultimately it’s its own thing. It puts mythological characters and creatures to very clever use, and doesn’t shy away from real-world issues either (abusive stepdads and feelings of abandonment, to name a couple).

CB

Well with actual Clash of the Titans coming out soon, do I need a Titans/Potter crossover? I’m thinking not.

Now I like book/movie titles that are short and to the point, not counting dry texts on scientific topics where verbosity is not a bad thing. “The Lightning Thief” is a fine title for a movie, “Percy Jackson & the Olympians” is okay. The combined name is less than the sum of its parts.

Worry about what you’ll call the sequel after you’ve made the first one good enough that a sequel is actually in the cards. :P

Though Chapter titles are fine places to be wordy, silly, or anything else you want to be. I always like the chapter of Don Quixote that was titled “In which are described the events that transpire therein”.

LaSargenta

But Nathan F, it really isn’t an unwieldy title if you take into account that this is poetry, read the title out loud with some cadence. The entire play was poetry. A dozen or 15 or so different women speaking in poetry (if I recall correctly. I saw it about 28 years ago. Maybe more.)

Personally, I don’t know how this would be made into a mainstream movie.

My favorite bit is how this movie features an American teenager named Percy.

Bluejay

Short for Perseus. Which is not a very American name either. :-)

LaSargenta

…an American teenager named Percy.

Oh, American parents name their kids all kind of crazy names. If I had been a boy, I kid you not, I’d have been named Percival…which gets shortened to — guess what? PERCY! I’m so glad I was born female.

Anyhow, why couldn’t they just have called this The Lightning Thief? Are there that many others that they needed to differentiate? I can see the list now…Ben Franklin: Lightning Thief … Pieter van Musschenbroek: Lightning Thief … Michael Faraday: Lightning Thief — okay, maybe that last one should be Michael Faraday: He Walks Through Lightning.

Hmmm.

LaSargenta

HOW could I have forgotten?!??!! Nikola Tesla: The Lightning Thief!

MaryAnn

Percival…which gets shortened to — guess what? PERCY!

Or Val.

I’ve oftened wondered whether Val Kilmer’s real name is Percival or Valentine. I’m sure there’s a way to find out. But I prefer the not knowing…

Bluejay

I actually think “The Lightning Thief” is misleading, as people assume it refers to Percy. In the story, he’s trying to find out who the lightning thief is.

I’ve seen international posters with a more accurate title: “Percy Jackson AND the Lightning Thief.” Although I don’t really like this either, as it makes the story sound even more like Harry Potter and all the “Harry Potter and the…” titles.

I think mythological Greek names are cool. If I’d been named Perseus, I wouldn’t shorten it to Percy or try to hide it at all. (Apollo has a nice ring to it too.) Whether or not flaunting such a name would have earned me more or fewer beatings on the playground is an interesting question…

My vote for most cumbersome movie title goes to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.

I wonder if this will do well enough for a sequel to follow through – we’ve had a few kids’ fantasy books that haven’t really succeeded thus far. The Dark is Rising for one, Eragon and The Golden Compass.

bats :[

Evidently Kilmer’s given name is Val Edward Kilmer, after one of his father’s business associates. So, not Valentine, Valentino, Percival, or Prince Valiant.

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